Serendipity
by kUgi-jeL
Summary: Begins when Mai is in Omashu. She goes on a trip with her friends to a resort in the Earth Kingdom. Winds up in the village on Zuko Alone when her transportation breaks. She gets mugged and you'll see the rest
1. Prologue

Hi

this is my first story. A Maiko even though I hate that couple I felt like writing one for some odd reason. So Mai is in the colonies and Azula never picks her up like she did on the show. Instead she meets Zuko again you'll see how. It begins while she is in Omashu from her POV. Enjoy!

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It was New Years. What used to be one of my favorite holidays. My family and I used to celebrate by going to the annual festivals they'd always have in the heart of the city. I loved the fireworks the food seeing everyone, friends, family etc. But not this year… or the year before… or the year before… or even the one before that. Nope I have to spend my favorite holiday at home with only like five people because unfortunately my family and I are stuck in the stupid boring colonies.

Yeah, basically ever since we moved out to this God forsaken place I haven't really done anything fun or worthwhile. In fact all my little fantasies about how fun and awesome my teen years would be have completely fallen by the wayside since my Dad was assigned to come 'civilize' the people here. You know how many kids at my school of 400 people are from the mainland? Five. Seriously. Only five people to hang out with. Five people who don't totally hate my guts and are in fact on the same boat as me with the whole school loathing us thing.

Truth be told, I was excited when we first move out here. I thought we'd run this place, that I'd be one of the school's elite and that the native kids would be intimidated by us homelanders. That was so stupid of me. How is a population of 495 supposed to be intimidated by 5 people especially if the only intimidating thing about us is our nationality?

Anyways so its New Years and I'm in my room with those five friends of mine basically doing nothing but wasting time talking about stuff no one really cares about.

Nao sits on my bed with her legs crossed. She's the most extreme out of all of us. In terms of everything. She's loud, tall, and way too outspoken for my own personal tastes. The most annoying thing about her are her constant rants about how much she hates our school, the color green, how superior we are and how ridiculous it is that we should be outcasts in a place full of inferiors. Like I said way too extreme. Tons of people hate her guts. She's actually one of the nicest people I know though once you get past that initial 'whoa that girls crazy!' impression. She also cares too much about appearance for me. She's always stylish with one of those a-symmetrical haircuts and stuff. She rants about that a lot too like' Why do I put so much effort in looking good when there's no one in this damn school to look good for'.

Then there's Kai. He's so spoiled. He's really funny though without trying. I used to think he was hot but then he started dating Nao so I basically quashed those feelings. He has a twin sister Khuu who is the quietest girl I know. I usually forget she's even there. And the last one of us is this half breed girl Lin. The natives call her a sellout since she's mixed and chose us. I don't blame them. She really is a sellout. She tries way too hard to fit in with us and it gets incredibly annoying.

"And he wrote back yesterday but I haven't even opened the letter yet!' squeals Lin. I don't know who she's even talking about since I've been accidentally tuning them out with my own thoughts. I do that a lot. My friends love to say I'm the only sane one in the group since I'm the calmest and the quietest. I agree but I don't tell them that since I know they're only joking.

"Wait who?" I ask

"My creepy cousin I set her up with" says Nao grinning

"He's NOT creepy we already established that!" retorts Lin.

They continue with their arbitrary conversation as I remember back when New Years used to be fun. Yep. Amazing how things can change.


	2. Leaving

**So here's Chapter 2. So far the stoy's moving kind of slowly but by Chapter 3 you'll see where I'm going with it. **

**Diclaimer: I don't own Avater. I do own the other characters not on the show though.**

Tuesday morning. I'm sitting in the school lunchroom talking with Nao when Kai comes in and gives day ruining news.

"Guess what I've got great news!" he says hurriedly

"What happened now?" I reply

"Well its good news for me not really for ya'll" he says grinning "I'm leaving!"

Wow that was not what I was expecting. Neither was Nao, especially since they started ddating and she basically expects to know everything first.

"What!?" we exclaim simultaneously. I'm expecting the next words out of Nao's mouth to have something to do with the fact that he's just now telling her this but instead she says something even worse.

"What a coincidence me too!"

"Seriously! That's great now I don't feel bad!" says Kai both of them looking elatedly at each other. This is terrible.

"You guys…" I whine "You're leaving me here… alone. Next year will suck!"

"I'm sorry Mai. I know you hated this place more than either of us but at least you'll have Lin" says Nao in attempt to make me feel better.

Of course it only makes me feel worse.

"And there's only one year left so its not like you'll have to put up with here much longer" chimes in Kai. "That's the point. It's senior year! Don't you know senior year is supposed to be the fun year? Not the worst!"

They both look at me guiltily.

"And three of you are leaving its not like its just one friend I have to lose. Its three!" I sigh frustratedly.

The room gets all silent and awkward.

"… But I guess it is out of your control".

This little comment takes all the guilt they seemed to have out of them. Now they're all cheery again.

The remainder of the day goes by very slowly. I'm imagining how next year will go. Lin and I have never really liked each other but I guess we'll have to make do. Unless of course she abandons me to go hang out with the Earth people. I'll bet she will. I can't wait to get home.

My house is big and gaudy. Seriously you can see it from a block because its so brightly colored. Especially since almost everything in this city is brown.

My mom is feeding my baby brother when I arrive home.

"How was your day?" she asks

"Delightful," I reply keeping my tone sincere.

"That's nice."

I head upstairs to do homework trying to figure a way out of coming back next year. Ah well. I've learned by now that focusing too much on things that bother you never really gets you anywhere. It just gets you depressed. So I resolve to keep next year out of my mind until it happens.

**Well hope you enjoyed. Please review!**


	3. Reminiscing

**Okay so first i'm going to clarify some questions I've been getting about the first two chapters. So, it is not a modern style fic. If you remember the Headband episode when Aang went to school that's kind of the feel I was ging for. It did seem pretty modern but that's how they depicted school on the show**

**Secondly I didn't actually intend for those chapters to be so short, they seemed longer on Microsoft word, but since I get it now I'll make my next chapters longer.**

**There's finally some Maiko action in this chapter! and by the end you guy's will start to see how it all connects. And if anyone thinks Zuko seems out of character in this chapter, it's because this is three and a half years ago. Hence its before all the issues.**

**Oh yeah and this chapter has surfing in it which did exist on the show if you remember on the Beach episode they showed a random guy surfing (just in case somebody thinks that makes it seem too modern) Well thanks for reading! Enjoy.**

3 and a half years previously. August

(btw the main characters were 17 in regular time 14 in this time)

I open my eyes slowly.

Gauzy white fabric surrounds me clouding my view . I squint through it and see through my window, the ocean. The waves crashing violently against the shore. The sun is high in the sky. For s second I wonder where I am exactly. Then I remember the events of the past few days. This girl Azula I've always been friends with (in the loosest sense of the word) finally invited me to come with her, her elder brother Zuko and their friends to a vacation on their beach house in Ember Island. When we were little I remember their whole family went on these trips every year, until their Mom died (at least I think she died) and they stopped. For some reason they chose to go again this year, however this time they went without the parents and invited two friends each instead.

The only reason my extremely over protective parents even let me go was because of they were the Fire Lord's kids. Can't exactly say no to that family, when you're in my parents position (they work for him).

I rise out of bed and walk to the kitchen glancing around the house as I walk. It's completely empty. _Did they all leave me_, I wonder _without waking me up? That's rude…_ I wander over to the door and look outside where I see a figure running toward the house. _Zuko__? _It _is_ him. He runs over to the door and walks in. I look him over. He's shirtless and wearing swim trunks but he isn't wet. As though he was about to go swimming and then forgot something. His hair was in a low ponytail which made him look, in my opinion, way better and more mature than the high one he usually wears. It made him look rebellious.

"Hey, I came to ask you… Where is everyone? Did they all leave without you?" his tone is rushed

"Yeah I just woke up and no one was here. Any idea where they went?"

He puts his hand on the back of his neck. "Um well I know my sister and that other girl, wanted to but souvenir's or something but I told them to wait for you. And my friends headed over to…."

He did? That's thoughtful, I never even realized he noticed my existence. I mean we've moved in the same circles our whole life and I was always friends with his little sister (despite being a year older than her/ his age) but until now we've never actually had a conversation. Not that this is much of a conversation but just the fact that he mentioned me to them must mean something.

I didn't even hear where he said his friends went. It really didn't matter. What did matter that the two of us, for the first time ever were completely alone together. What did matter, was what he said next.

"Hmm so are you doing anything here?"

"No not really. I just woke up."

"Want to go surfing?"

_What????? _I think to myself. _Surfing? How random is that?_

I blink at him confused, "Um… well I don't really know how…"

"That's fine, neither do I, just follow me,"

Then he takes off running in the direction that he came from. I follow.

"Joe! Where are we going?" I yell, my voice partially drowned out by the sounds of the beach

"I found some fisherman on the beach and he offered me surfing lessons so I told him to wait while I go get my friends and then I found you instead"

_Oh so I'm only second choice_

"He's not some bum is he" I ask

He laughs, "You'd probably say he is!"

We continue onward silently, the sand stinging my ankles as me run.

Finally we get there. I grimace slightly, the man really was a bum!

He has long hair he wears down and ragged hippie looking clothes. I hope he's not crazy or anything.

"Eeyy man you came back with friends after all! Gotta tell ya, I thought you were just tryna to mess with my head!" Then he starts laughing like a maniac

I give Zuko a look that says 'what did you just get us into'

He shrugs, then interrupting the man's laughter he says "So you're going to show us how to surf?"

The man stops laughing "Oh right that's what you came here for!" then he laughs again.

"So ya got boards?" the man asks

We give each other a nervous glance "Uh no," I reply

"We figured you'd have some... since you're a surf teacher" zuko adds.

"Oh yeah I got some extra's wait a minute" says the man putting up one finger, "I'll go get 'em"

As soon as the man leaves I turn to face Zuko. "What were you thinking?! This guy is crazy! Did you even think through what might happen! What if he's some sort of serial killer or something?"

He laughs "Relax he seems fine"

As it turned out the man was fine. We spent the whole morning mastering how to surf until we were actually relatively good. Or at least Zuko was, it took me a while to fully be able to stand onthe board but I could eventually. We had more fun than U could remember having in a good while. The sun was perfect the waves were perfect... we were perfect. And by that I mean, we both were really able to enjoy ourselves for once, without any of societies pretenses or other people to comment on us. We said what we wanted, did what we wanted and for the most part it was amazing. I guess this is why sometimes you just have to let loose and take risks. He was always better than that then I was. He was always more trusting.

By twelvish we were kind of water logged though, so we came out and went back to the beach house to have lunch.

"Let's hope Azula and them aren't back yet" I muttered to him not wanting this to end. I feared deep down that any friendship we'd built today, would be ruined by their return. So even though I knew they'd have to come back eventually, I wished they never would.

"I know" he said.

We walked inside together. Fortuately the house was still empty. I smiled at him. We made sandwiches grabbed a towel and headed back to the beach.

We spread out the towel and sat down on it adn started eating.

"You know, I'm really glad you convinced me to do this," I say

"Yeah, you owe me for not giving in to you," he says grinning

_Stupid stupid!_"You have to admit though, that guy was a bum"

"Not really..."

"Yes"

"Even if he was, what's wrong with that? He enjoys life just in a different way then people like us,"

"People like us... I think maybe people like us don't get to enjoy life as much" I say thinking more of myself than of our 'class' in general

"Well we really enjoyed life today" he replies

I smile thouroughly enjoying his company. I don't know what it was that made me feel so bold, but I did something the typical barely fourteen year old me never would have done.

"I enjoyed you" I say embarrassed the second the words left my mouth. _Stupid stupid! He's just your friend's brother, nothing more. he sees you as nothing more._

Then it happened. He leaned over and kissed me. My first kiss... and as I would find out the next day, my last (at least for a good three and a half years).

***

When I went to bed that night, my mind was filled with fantasies. I imagined next year, me and Zuko being an item and having a great relationship. Together forever.

Then I got a letter, from home.

"My dear Mai,

We have written to tell you of great news. Your father has gotten a most beneficial oppurtunity. He has been chosen from hundreds of other generals to be the head of the expansion efforts in the city of Omashu, a large city in the Earth Kingdom."

_Oma who? _I skim through the letter my heart beat speeding up

"Of course this means the whole family will have to relocate to this city, however I am sure you will take advantage of this amazing oppurtunity to learn about the many culture of the world and support your father throught this endeavour,

Love,

Your Mother"

I was shocked. All of the dreams and excitement from yeasterday crashed to the floor. I'm leaving.

Its true, people like us never get to enjoy life.

And so I moved on. Two days later our trip ended and I took the first boat available to the landlocked city of Omashu.

I never saw the ocean again.

Zuko and I kept in touch via messenger hawk for the first six months or so. Then I stopped hearing from him. At first I worried that he'd moved on, that what we had was just some summer fling, until I heard what happened to him. (**Author's note: I know you know so I'm not going into the details**)

I didn't believe it at first. But then i remembered onw of the things I loved about him was his strong sense of right and wrong, and his rebelliousness. When I first told him that I was leaving he said "Just tell them you're not going, they can't really force you. Argue. Ask them to let you go to boarding school here. Do something you can't just take what they say and don't even attempt to get what you want" (not his exact words it's been three and a half years I don't have a perfect memory)

"Are you crazy? Their my parents I could never tell them that!"

At first I attributed his response to him being a prince, but apparently it was just his nature. And it caused his demise.

For a while I dreamed I'd hear from him again, but I never did. I still don't know if he ever made it home or not.

***

While I'm working on homework I hear a knock at the door. Since I was getting distracted and all day dreamy anyways, I head downstairs to answer it. Hopefully it's not someone selling something.

I glance through the windows. Kai? That's odd. I open the door.

"Hey Kai… What are you doing here?" I ask completely perplexed.

"Hi Mai" (**Author note**. **Wow I totally just realized their names rhyme! That was a mistake I just couldn't really think of any ****Avatarish**** names. Okay back to the story!**) "I just came over to tell you something,"

"Yeah I figured that much… What's happening?"

"Okay so Nao and I were talking today about what happened and… well we feel bad for you."

I must admit I'm slightly amused by this.

"Yeah…?"

He glances down then looks back up at me. "So we figured to say goodbye, you know in case we don't get to see each other again, maybe we ought to all do something together. The five of us. Like as a last Hurrah to the five firenation kids at Omashu High." He seems incredibly nervous. Way too nervous for such a cheerdul proposal.

"Something like what?"

"Well we were throwing around the idea of renting a beach house and you know vacationing"

I stare at him. How odd that that was what I was just remembering.

"Where?"

"On the Earth Kingdom coast"

"That's so far though"

"My parents said they'll pay for transportaion and the rental house" he says. I must admit I'm a bit suspisious. Why are they being so generous, they don't even know me...

He looks discomforted by my staring "Look we'll talk about it tommorow, see you at school." he says "Bye," then he walks out the door.

Why am I getting such bad feelings about this?


	4. Indifference

**Okay here's the most important chapter so far! This is where the story really begins. **

**I hate writing fight scenes. So sorry if it sucked, I kind of skimmed over it. Shuang dao is the Chinese term for double broad sword in case you didn't know.**

**This takes place in the same time period as the Zuko Alone episode exactly. So by the time it is evening Zuko has just finished the fight with those earth benders.**

**By the way, when I say carriage, I mean that little fancy wagon thing that was pulled by the osrich horses on the show. Anyway enjoy**

Despite the bad feelings I'd had when Kai first told me about the trip idea, two months later when we were preparing the carriage to leave I was actually pretty excited.

Even though we were only going to the Earth Kingdom coastline it would be the closest thing I'd come to the bliss of the trip a few years ago. Unfortunately (as if I mean that) Lin couldn't come. Well actually it wasn't that she couldn't come it was that Kai hadn't invited her. This really confused me at first since it was supposed to be the five of us, but since I never liked her anyways I didn't press the issue.

Nao threw her suitcase in the back of the carriage. My parents had hired a driver to take us, though we'd said we'd divide the drive among the four of us. I guess they didn't trust my friends to drive. Or maybe they didn't trust us to be alone. Regardless of why, we were stuck with a poor middle-aged Earth man supervising us. I was excited enough not to care.

After taking far too long to load everything we finally were off. Khuu predicted that it'd take a good nine to ten hours before we'd reached our destination. So it pretty much qualified as a road trip.

I was sitting in the back in the left seat next to Nao, who was next to Kai. Khuu was in the front seat near the driver. I hate the front seat because it's too close to the animals pulling the carriage, and of course Nao and Kai wanted to sit together so that's why we were seated this way.

For the first hour or so we were all in good spirits, talking and laughing and so on. But by the second hour Khuu started dozing off, and Kai and Nao were having a 'couple's only' conversation, so I was left with nothing to do but look at the scenery.

Everything looked the same. Dry, sparse trees, flat, dirty. The Fire Nation was about fifty times prettier. It was mountainous, green, and being an island you could see the ocean from almost everywhere. Hopefully this place would be prettier by the coast.

***

God this was boring. It felt like we'd been traveling for ages when in actuality it had only been about five hours. Plus, due to one of the animals being slower than we'd expected we weren't even halfway there. Meaning the ride would probably take about six more hours.

About an hour later the carriage stopped suddenly. Then I heard a really loud noise. I glanced outside worriedly. Now instead of being surrounded solely by grass, dirt and sparse trees, there were beaten down buildings and dirty looking people pacing around.

"What just happened?!" I heard Nao exclaim, she sounded so distant somehow. Then I heard a scream from the front seat.

"Khuu!" Kai ripped open the curtain thing separating the front and back seats, which we had closed when Khuu fell asleep.

"Shit"

I peer over Nao's head and through the curtain (being on the far left I can hardly see anything). First I see Khuu, her eyes wide staring off at something beside her. Then I see the object she is staring at.

I try to say something but my throat is too dry for words to come out. The driver is lying still with blood dripping from the side of his mouth and a spear with green feathers tied around it is pierced straight through his body. All of this happened in a matter of seconds though time seemed to pass so slowly.

Then I feel the carriage shaking and realize, we are being robbed. My hand travels instinctively to my lower back to reach for my daggers. Then I realize, I'm completely unarmed. We all are.

"Oh God oh God oh God" I hear Nao whispering only unerving me more.

"Everyone get out! Now!" Kai yells urgently

We all run out and onto the streets. Upon seeing our assailents I feel slightly less panicked. What fools we were! To travel through the Earth Kingdom which is ridden with crime and poverty, in a big fancy _red_ carriage, completely unarmed and to not expect this to happen. If we didn't get robbed, surely there'd be someone to commit a hate crime against us in this obvioulsy Fire Nation carriage.

Idiots!

There were twelve of them. More than likely they had never had any formal training, (unlike the four of us) so if we stayed together and divided them among us we'd probably be able to make it out okay. Hopefully they aren't benders.

I'm about to say this in so many words to my friends but then I notice something.

They're gone.

Panicked I look around all over.

I cannot believe this. They left me. To fight twelve armed men completely alone. They left me to die.

Damn.

Guess I'll just have to do the best I can and hope its enough to escape.

A man comes at me with a spear which I dodge and then slam my elbow into his skull. From my peripheral I see another attacked and kick him while facing the other guy.

Then one large rock hits me in the head while another large rock slams into my side.

Guess they were benders after all.

The last thing I see before everything goes black is another man, this one with a pair of _shuang dao_.

***

Zuko's POV

I didn't expect to see her again. Its ironic really, back when I thought of her all the time, when I hoped maybe we'd run into her somewhere since I knew she was living in the Earth Kingdon, I never saw her. Not even a trace of her. But by the time I've almost completely forgotten about her, when she's the last thing on my mind, she shows up.

Figures

Nightfall was slowly arriving, and I was looking for a place to sleep tonight. Now that all the adrenaline was gone, my whole body was sore from being hit with boulders. I had just narrowly escaped a fight. In fact the only reason I'd won that fight was because I'd cheated and used firebending. I guess cheating wouldn't be the right word since the other guy had been bending as well.

I couldn't stop thinking about the way the kid (Lee) had stared at me. With such hatred in his eyes. Everyone there had that pure raw hatred in their eyes.

Up until then I had never really experienced being hated. Every other fight I'd been in had been one of indifference.

There is a massive difference between hatred and indiffernce.

I'd always thought that I'd prefer being hated, because to be hated you must command a certain amount of respect in the eyes of the person who hates you. With indifference you're just a minor annoyance. The effects are the same, but without the dignity. However, now that I had a first hand experience of hate I'm not sure which one is worse.

Indifference was what I felt as I rode past a group of thugs who looked like they were beating the crap out of someone. I fully intended to keep riding right past them until I noticed that it was a woman whom they were beating.

_Don't get involved, don't get involved_ I think to myself _You just got out of a fight that wasn't any of your buissness, don't go getting yourself into another one._

I couldn't resist.

It took about two seconds to defeat them. They were cowards, and after I'd beaten one the rest took off running.

A minor annoyance.

Then came the real surprise of the night. The woman was laying flat on her stomach. I flipped her over to help her and then I saw her face.

Mai.

At first I couldn't believe my eyes. What was she doing here? Now I was truly conflicted. I didn't want to see her. Not now, not like this. The time was wrong, the setting was wrong, I wasn't ready. I hated the idea of reuniting with her for the first time in years this way. Right now, I knew I was no better than the men who attacked her. I've attacked random carriaged, and stolen from people of all kinds. This couldn't be her first impression of me now. I wanted her memory of me to be all that she had, at least until I sort things out. When I sort things out, I can see her again.

I wasn't sure why I felt so strongly about this, but I think its because I know she's one of the last people, who continue to maintain a high view of me, despite all she hears from outsiders, or my sister, or her parents. I didn't want to prove them right in her eyes.

So I tried to think of a way out of her having to come with me. Obviously I couldn't just leave her here, especially not in the night. I considered going back to Lee's house and dropping her off there. Like 'You owe me whether you like it or not for saving your son. Take care of her and drop her off to Omashu when she's better or else'. Yeah right, like that would work well. Even if it would, its too late in the evening to make it all the way over there before nightfall. They live kind of far from here. And since I don't know or trust anyone else here, I had no choice but to heave her onto my ostrich horse and find somewhere for us to sleep. I'd figure out my next step in the morning.


	5. Reunion

**Okay readers. Haven't updated since my last holiday from school but now that I'm off either two things will happen.**

**1. I will keep up this story and update frequently**

**or**

**2. I might end this story and redo it except on fiction press. I originally planned this story as a more real life thing but I always had wanted to write an ATLA fanfic so I took this story and did it up as one. We'll see how the next chapters go, i.e. if I can keep coming up with ideas on how to keep this story in this world. **

**So anyways hope you like it. And thanks to the reviewers especially gloomymaikolover since you review the most :)**

It's amazing how anti-climatic a moment, when you've been waiting for it, dreaming and fantasizing about it, can be when it finally actually happens.

Since the day I received the letter telling me I had to leave, seeing Zuko again has been the object of basically all of my fantasies. I mean really, how unfair is it for a girl to not only get her first kiss, but get it from her friends hot older brother and then be told she won't get to see him again at least not for a good four or so years. Which of course means that by then he would have moved on from any potential feelings he had. Yeah, I've been obsessing over how our reunion would go, or if it would ever occur, for a good while.

I assumed we'd probably finally meet again at some social gathering that our parents were invited to (though even this wasn't likely since we live so far and my very antisocial father turns down almost every invitation we get). The worst case scenario being that he'd completely moved on from me, maybe even completely forgotten about all that had happened that day at the beach. This was a pretty realistic possibility since he was after all an older guy who came from a good family and was obviously attractive. Why would he want his little sister's friend when he could probably do better? And that's not my insecurity talking, I honestly believe that that's just how it would be for most guys in that position.

The best case scenario I had worked out was that he'd be just as excited to see me as I was to see him and we'd turn into some sort of long distance couple. I seriously doubted this; my Mom says I'm a pessimist.

I'm amazed at how stupid I was to consider either of these scenarios as possible. I must have either forgotten or completely disregarded_ all_ that I had heard had happened to him after I'd left. I thought maybe what people said was an exaggeration; surely it couldn't have been true. I never viewed his father as a cruel man, so of course people were making up the stuff. I lived so far, maybe the story was just diluted along the way.

Of course I never could have imaged I'd meet him again this way. In the middle of nowhere, him rescuing me from a bunch of thugs (its hilarious how sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction).

So anyways, the morning after I was attacked I found myself under a lone tree in a large open field. My head ached from where I was it, but I remembered instantly what had occurred the previous night. The man who had saved me (remember I still had no clue who it was!) was still fast asleep a few feet away.

When I walked over to see him you can imagine how shocking it was for me. First I was shocked by the damage on the guy's face. I had never seen anything like that before then so I figured he must have been some Earth Kingdom war veteran who'd come home broke (due to his filthy green clothes). Then as soon as I took a closer look at him I was shocked even more when I realized who it was.

First of all, why on Earth was he here, of all places? The massive scar on his face meant the rumors were true, which was super depressing. But even so, why here? Since the rumors were true shouldn't he have been out at sea or something? I wondered if he recognized me. I snickered to myself thinking he must be as shocked as I am that I would be here. Speaking of which I don't really even know where 'here' is.

Should I wake him up? I sit down beside him and poke his shoulder gingerly. This is just too weird. I honestly cannot believe that this is happening. What should I say when he wakes up? Hmm… I'll just wait.

So it was definitely anti- climatic to say the least. I guess this can't even count as our first meeting yet since he's asleep…

I'm getting impatient now. "Hey … It's me… wake up,"

Humph it'll be sooo awkward when he wakes up… Why am I so nervous? Suddenly I realized how hungry I was. That's a good excuse to leave at least, I'll run over to town buy something and then by the time I'm back he'll surely be awake.

Don't be stupid Mai you have no money.

So what? I'll figure something out when I get there. I think to myself heading off into the direction of the sparsely populated area these people call a town.

"Mai? Where are you going?" I hear his voice from directly behind me. The voice is perplexed and somehow… almost condescending. How can someone be condescending when they first wake up?

I turn to face Zuko as I stop walking. "Oh I was just going to town… to buy some food" I mutter sheepishly.

He stares t me like I'm stupid "But they didn't they take your money?… and your still wearing_ that_," he replies gesturing to my red silk clothes in distain.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, as if he's so brilliant. I already knew all that I was just willing to take the risk.

"Oh…yeah true" I hear myself saying, as if I was oblivious to the fact that I was now broke and wearing the least ambiguous outfit I could possibly wear.

"Did the hurt you?" he asks

Awww finally some concern! "No not really" I reply smiling slightly "they just hurt my wallet…and my ego"

He ignores my feeble attempt at a joke. Guess it's just straight to business with this guy!

"So you have absolutely _no_ money" he says with that same stare.

Gold-digger much?

"No they took everything!"

"Everything?"

"Yes everything." I say getting frustrated. I mean seriously! I can understand this moment being anticlimactic, but he hasn't even bothered to ask me what I'm doing here! Or even paused long enough to let me ask him anything. Plus based on the past five minutes I've spent with him, I'd say he's a completely different person than he was last time I saw him. Completely entirely 100% someone else. I just hope this small time isn't a true representative of how he is now.

He sighs exasperatedly "Okay we need to find you some new clothes." He pauses. I'm about to ask him what he's doing here when he continues with "What were you thinking coming_ here _dressed like _that"_

At first I was slightly put off by that question but I guess its legitimate, since after all he didn't know we hadn't planned on stopping. "Well we didn't plan on stopping" I explain

"Still, you should have thought of that"

"Yeah we were stupid I already realize that. You don't have to tell me fifty times"

He hesitates, "Calm down. I wasn't insulting you"

"No, we _were_. I mean, I'm not insulted"

"Okay"

"Fine"

"So where were you planning on finding some new clothes?" I ask

"Oh just around town I guess,"  
"Don't you have any extra… clothes?"  
He looks up seeming slightly surprised that I asked. As if I was being forward or something. I mean I didn't realize that was some kind of… outlandish request or something. My face reddens because of his reaction.

"Well I just thought… it'd be easier you know? Then I guess.. having to steal clothes.. if I don't know… that's what you were plann-"

He smiles very slightly. Actually it wasn't even much of a smile since if I'd looked down for a second I'd have missed it. "You don't have to explain yourself. It's a reasonable thing to ask, of course that'd be easier,"

"Soooo, do you then?"

"Oh.. uh yeah sure," then he hesitates again embarrassedly "not any… clean ones"

_Wow._ I swear I haven't felt this awkward in a_ long_ time "Um I guess I'll just have to make do then" I reply.

He walks over to his horse thing and grabs the bag strapped around the animals neck "Knock yourself out" he says.

I snicker. Must admit this is the first time anyone's thrown me a bag of dirty clothing and said 'knock yourself out'.

I glance around at the sparse environment. _Where the hell am I supposed to change?_ He seems to think of it at the same time as I do.

"Don't worry I won't watch" he says.

_Argh!_ I don't even know which bothers me more. The fact that I'm naked in front of an old… _summer fling _putting on his _dirty old cheap_ clothing, or the fact that I'm naked in an _open field_ where the horizon extends for miles and any creep could walk up at any moment and I'd have absolutely nothing to hide behind.

My hair feels all gross and sweaty. I guess from the fight last night. Its times like this that I'm simultaneously glad I have long hair (at least it'll provide _some _coverage if someone walks up) and annoyed by it (like I said its gross and sweaty).

"Okay I'm ready"

Zuko turns around. "Alright then let's go,"

I hop on his ostrich horse after him. We start along the dirt trail, formed not so much on purpose as by the amount of passers who've traveled here over the years"

"So where exactly are we going?" I ask.

"Didn't you say you wanted food from town?"

"Ah…"

There's not a cloud in sight. No clouds, barely any birds, no trees, no mountains, just acres and acres of high grass.

"And after we eat where are we going?" I ask.

He pauses "How about we talk about that stuff when we get to the city"

Why? I wonder to myself. "Fine" I say dissatisfiedly.

We continue to ride down the path.  
"Hey Zuko?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Where did you find such a slow ostrich horse?"  
He snickers without replying.  
"I hope it was cheap, cause I've seen toroises faster than this" I say (yes I know its cliche but I'm being serious. I actually have seen faster tortoises)  
"Probably just because its not used to carrying two people. And yeah it was cheap."  
"That's nice"

Finally after a million era's we arrive.

Its actually alot closer to a city than I would've thought. It seems to just pop up and the die back down into wilderness so abruptly it gives the whole area a more _shopping centerish_ feeling. But when you're not looking at the whole area, and just honing in on the city itself it actually seems relatively large. There are small two story buindings clustered around. The majority of them were attached to other un identical buildings. Another thing, nothing matched, which some might say gave the city character, but I would say it just made it look dumpy.

People were everywhere running around, or just talking to each other. We passed a bunch of guys playing some sort of gambling game in the middle of the street. I thought it was gross. But not nearly as gross as the dirt coated elderly couple making out on the side of the road. It gave me shivers.

"Okay we're here" he says pointing at the building we were standing in front of. I squinted. "Is this place deserted?

It sure looked like it. The windows were dark, all kinds of things were hanging off the outer walls and the roof looked like it was about to cave in.

He makes a dismissive noise "Obviously not"

We walked in together. Hmm I guess it wasn't deserted. A golden skinned man with his hair pulled back in a ponytail walked over to us. "Hello, back again I see! You said you were leaving didn't you"

I glance up at Zuko.

"You know this guy" I whisper

He ignores me, "I planned too but I got sidetracked. This is my friend Lin"

_Lin. Really._ Of all the names he could of thought up he comes up with the name of my annoying frenemy?

"Oh nice to meet you!" The man says jovially extending a hand.

"Likewise" I reply shaking his hand.

"Have a seat" he says "Do you know what you'd like?"

I start to say no when Zuko inturrupts me with "Just bring us whatever's most popular"

"Be right out" replies the man.

I hate being out of the loop.

"Ok so now that we're here we can explain everything,"he says once the man has left.

"Why here?"

"Because its safe"

I'm not even going to bother and ask how.

"Alright then," I begin I have a million questions to ask him "First why are you here"

He presses his hand to his forehead. "That'll take too long to answer"

"So what?"

"I'll tell you. Just not now"

I feel like screaming. Doesn't he get how confused I am? How curious?

"Why are you here?" he asks

"Why would I tell you now?"

"Don't be immature"

"Fine. My friends and I wanted to go on a road trip to the coast and then we got robbed midway."

"So what happened to your friends?"

"They ran away" I say softly.

"Some friends"

"I know,"

"What cowards"

"I know" I hesitate "But that doesn't mean I don't want to find them."

"What?" he says sounding genuinly surprised.

"I want to find them. That's where I want to go next"

Again he looks frustrated. He pinches the bridge of his nose saying "That's not what I had in mind"

"What were you thinking we'd do?"

"Well I assumed I'd drop you back to Omashu, and I'd be on my way"

"That's it."

"Yes"

I scoff "Wow". I try not to be hurt by the fact that he didn't want to spend time with me. I don't know why but I'd assumed we'd stay together for a while.

"What? Are you mad that I don't care about you friends? To be honest I don't think you should either" he says

He's right. I wasn't really in this for them. Well at least not completely. I just wanted us to spend time together. To get to know each other again. Maybe even get to fullfill my old fantasies. I thought finding them might be my only oppurtunity to spend maximum time with him. Because really we have no idea where they are.

"No. I understand. I'm just worried about them you know? They only left me because they were afraid." I'm such a good liar.

"Yeah I know. That's why I called them cowards."

Walked right into that one.

"Fine... but don't you want to spend some time with me?" I ask, feeling pathetic and hating myself for having to ask.

He softened. "Well," again with the stressed look "Of course I do. You should know that" I'm beaming on the inside "but" of course there's a but "I think it' be better for both of us if I just dropped you home. And if you want to spend time with me, I guess you will on the way"

"Why do you think we'd be better off that way?"

"Because, that's just how things are right now."

"You mean the _things _you can't be bothered to tell me about because it'd take to long?"

"Exactly"

"So basically you want me to accept that I should go back to somewhere I hate and not get to see you again, depite the fact that I haven't seen you in almost four years, because of some _things _that you can't mention, that brought you here in the first place."

"Yes"

"Well" I say slowly "I can't accept that. I hate Omashu and I don't want ot go back. Not yet"

"I didn't realize you _hated_ it"

"I. Hate. It."

"Why?"

"Because, I'm a complete freaking outcast there! Everyone hates us fire nation kids because of where we're from, and I don't really even like or have anything in common with my so called _friends _and its just depressing! If you want me to go back you at least need to tell me something to convince me that its a good idea"

He sighs. "Fine. I'm a fugitive Mai"

My mouth almost dropped open. "You broke the law?"

"It's not as simple as you think. But if you do travel with me you have to be prepared for the consequences"

"I am!"

"You haven't even thought about it?"

"I will"

**Okay I'll write more later hope you guys liked it. I realize it was a little too much dialogue by the end but hope you didn't mind. Go ahead and click that little green button below you to give me some feedback. **

**Gracias!**


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